Quote:
Originally Posted by obcbobd
In the early 1990s I worked for the Massachusetts Department of Revenue. I also went to the occasional card show. I noticed that with the exception of Hall's Nostalgia, who had a physical store, no one charged state sales tax. I thought of asking one of my managers why they didn't crack down on this, of course I never did. Thirty years later I still never see anyone charging sales tax at shows.
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Sounds like a fun job at the DOR.
My experience is that collecting sales tax is only required if the business is registered to collect sales tax in that state. Registration requirements vary from state to state, but often revolve around issues like nexus and sales volume in that state.
Every once in a while, I'll get an email from an auction house announcing that they are now required to collect sales tax in a specific state, which adds to their existing list. I suspect this happens when they cross the sales threshold for that state.
So for a vendor who doesn't do much business in the state, often they won't be required to actually collect sales tax in that state. While there may be some gamesmanship around cash sales going on, I wouldn't be surprised if most of the dealers from out of state fall below the threshold necessary to register to collect sales tax in Mass.